View full sizeJohn Berry / The Post-Standard, 2010The Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma plans to reopen its combination convenience store and gas station in Seneca Falls in the near future, after it finds a new wholesale cigarette supplier.

Seneca Falls, NY -- The Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma plans to reopen its combination convenience store and gas station in Seneca Falls in the near future, the nation’s chief said today.

The tribe shut down the business last week after its wholesale cigarette supplier pulled its tobacco products from the store on East Bayard Street, Chief LeRoy Howard said.
The store had opened last month.

Now the Seneca-Cayugas -- who claim to have ancestral roots in the Finger Lakes -- are looking for a new cigarette supplier, Howard added. “We intend to reopen (the business) in a few days,’’ Howard said.

Closing the store had nothing to do with a brewing dispute between the tribe and rival Cayuga Indian Nation of New York, according to Howard.

Last week, the New York Cayugas asked Seneca County District Attorney Barry Porsch to shut down the Oklahoma tribe’s store because the Seneca-Cayugas were selling tobacco products and fuel at the business without charging state taxes.

The Cayugas won court approval last year to sell state tax-free smokes and gas at their LakeSide Trading stores in Seneca Falls and Union Springs. They say the Oklahoma tribe does not have legal authority to do so in New York state.

“The Cayuga Nation believes the cigarettes were removed for the very real possibility of enforcement (of tax laws) by the state or local officials,’’ said Daniel French, a lawyer representing the Cayugas.

Not so, according to Howard, who added, “We’re just having supplier problems. We’re not in the groove yet.’’

French disagreed. “We believe they’re having supplier problems because their supplier recognized that their operation is potentially in violation of the law.’’

Porsch declined to comment on the dispute, but said he does not have the authority to shut down any business when asked if he had anything to do with the closing of the out-of-state tribe’s store.

Two years ago, under former District Attorney Richard Swinehart, the county tried to prosecute the New York Cayugas for not paying state taxes on cigarettes and fuel at their store on Route 89, a couple miles from the Oklahoma tribe’s business.

However, a state appeals court ruled last year that Cayuga and Seneca counties lack the authority to prosecute the tribe for tax evasion because its two stores are on qualified reservation land. The Cayugas’ ancestral homeland encompassed Seneca Falls and Union Springs.

The state Department of Taxation and Finance, which is looking into the dispute between the two tribes, had nothing to do with the closing, department spokesman Brad Maione said.